Nothing is worse in our industry than when you’re in a dry spell. If you’re not careful, it can creep up on you and leave you broke AF. Dry spells kill our confidence. We become fearful of losing the next sale, knowing we need to close it more than any sale before in our career. That’s a lot of self-pressure and it rarely works.
Dry slumps are all in your head. Sales is a numbers game. You’ve got to get in front of 100 people to close one. Unless you’re me, then you need to get in front of 1,000 to close one (ISO the elite only). Most of the time, the numbers stay consistent. You talk to 100 people, one buys. Sometimes though, you go through 300 without a single show of interest.
Much like other droughts, sales droughts can end with floods, too. Patience always pays off. When you bust through those 300 without a sale, chances are in the next 100, you’ll hit three closes in a row. UNLESS, you let it get to your head. If the drought gets to your head, you may make 1,000 calls or more before you snap out of it…and that’s if you snap out of it at all.
How Can You Avoid Getting Sucked into an Inescapable Sales Slump?
Like I was saying above, sales is all about numbers. There’s no algorithm. These are random lotto type numbers. There’s not a salesman on the planet who doesn’t already know this. So then, why do they let slumps affect them when really there’s no such thing as a slump?
Human emotions are some powerful things. After all, the most influential object on earth is the human mind. Emotions are manufactured by our limitless brains. Emotions will almost always interfere with rationality. Even though WE KNOW it’s a numbers game, we tend to talk in slumps and lose self-confidence. If we want out, all we need to do is keep hitting numbers.
The best salesmen have learned to avoid emotion and push on no matter what. We listen to motivational speeches, jam music, read books, do drugs and whatever else we can indulge in to avoid emotions. Emotions can cost commissions. Who cares if they say “No!” or don’t buy? There’s another prospect in line right after them.
With a sucker born every second, no matter what you sell, you’ll eventually close a deal. It’s your job to relentlessly seek that deal and not be affected by all the be backs”, “nos” and “looky-loos” you’ll run across.
Now that I’ve clearly explained to you what a slump is, how it’s caused and why we fall into them, let’s talk about getting out of one when you’re sucked in. It happens to all of us. We ALL go through dry spells. The cards/numbers don’t always get dealt in the right order.
How Can You Drag Yourself Out of a Sales Slump Once You’re in Deep?
I’ve hit a few dry spells in my day. They usually come at the worse times, like when you’re on a new job, or an unexpected bill shows up. Combine seemingly already stressful situations with a lack of closings and a guy like me will lose his cool. Once the cool is lost, it’s hard to get back.
These days, I’m proactive and I try to keep “the cool” at all times. I make sure that if I’m in a “slump” I don’t let emotions keep me there. In order to pull this off, you gotta be super self-aware. You’ve got to be a master of your own mind. Your mind can make or break a slump with one decision.
Back in the day, when I’d hit dry spells and lose confidence in myself just like anyone else, the first thing I’d do was try to become aware. When I started bitching about not closing deals, I’d catch myself and at that point realize the slump was creeping. Just like any other problem, if you don’t know it exists, you can’t solve it.
The next thing I’d do, once aware, was preserve my confidence. The key to closing is confidence. If you lose it, you lose sales. It’s that simple. How I held onto confidence even though my morale was getting murdered was easy. I just remembered the last five or six clients I’d closed. I remembered how happy they were and what results I’d gotten for them. That kind of reminiscing is always a good reminder of why we grind on.
It may sound cheesy, but I’d hit the books and YouTube, too if I caught myself in a slump. I’d watch motivational sales videos before work and listen to audio books about sales. If what I was doing wasn’t making sales, I was determined to listen to content that could help me change that. It’s always an amazing thing to see one line, one sentence, or even one word that can change the game for us salesmen.
If you can’t surround yourself with greatness, don’t settle for mediocrity. Meaning, if you’re the top guy and you’re in a slump, don’t resort to joining Harold from three cubes over and griping about the leads. It’s never the leads. It’s always on us.
There’s a Reason Harold Sucks…Don’t Hang with Losers
To take it one step further, you can call past clients and ask them how they are doing and what results they have obtained through using your stuff. Those testimonials can arm you with word tracks to use in your next meeting. Plus, hearing happy clients will open up your mind and restore confidence in what you’re selling again.
Let’s recap. You gotta be aware. Knowing you’re hitting the wall is the first step. Then you’ve got to restore confidence by calling or thinking about success stories you’ve created. After that, get some motivation. Music, videos, books, or whatever it is; just get it and channel it into sales.
On a side note, what I also like to do is hit the gym hard. If I can break records with my body and push it to the limit, I can get my confidence back. Feeling cocky about a workout can get you back to being cocky at work. Also, exhausting your body can give you mental clarity and realign your direction. Some of my clearest thoughts have come from hard workouts. Those thoughts have cured many a sales “slump.”
Education is important, too. Just as videos and books can break you out, the same can be said for training programs. The more you educate yourself, the more sales you make…as long as you take action.
If you’re ready to invest in your personal success and you’d like to find out about the programs we have developed especially for you, simply head over to www.HardcoreCloser.com/tribe and we’ll have a sales conversation about your future.
